


The Consequences of Your Actions

by Aesthetic_Clouds



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Albus Dumbledore Bashing, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Angst, Enemies to Friends, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Hogwarts First Year, M/M, Multi, POV Draco Malfoy, POV Harry Potter, Ron Hermione and Neville are the Golden Trio, Slow Build Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Slow Burn, Slytherin Harry Potter, harry is friends with draco pansy and blaise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:54:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25961662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aesthetic_Clouds/pseuds/Aesthetic_Clouds
Summary: Harry Potter, having gone through years of abuse, finds out that Albus Dumbledore knew what was happening and did nothing. Fuelled with hatred for the old man, Harry is set on a different path, with a different house, different friends, and a different view of the world around him.Basically, Slytherin!Harry AU with eventual Drarry & a lot of Dumbledore hate.(currently on hiatus but will be resumed eventually)
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 21
Kudos: 174





	1. A Different Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This is technically my 3rd drarry au but we're going to pretend the first one doesn't exist. This will be a long slow burn, so if you don't like that then this isn't for you. Also, most chapters will be from Harry's PoV at the start, but there will be more from Draco's PoV in future chapters. Sorry for any spelling/grammar errors - I only check it over once.

The past few hours of Harry’s life had been the best. He had been introduced to the wizarding world, and also told that what he had suspected for a while had been true - his parents didn’t die in a car crash like his aunt and uncle had led him to believe. Instead, they had been murdered by some dark wizard who you weren’t allowed to say the name of. Also, somehow he managed to defeat said wizard as a one year old? There were many confusing things in this new world.

As he wandered down Diagon Alley next to the friendly half-giant named Hagrid, he was amazed at the sights around him. Hagrid was taking his time to explain everything to him, when suddenly a thought occurred - he could find out about his parents. Hagrid had been the groundskeeper when his mother and father went to school so he must have known something about them?

“Hagrid, how well did you know my parents?” He asked curiously.

“Oh, well I knew ‘em quite well. Always gettin’ into trouble ya father were. The amount o’ times he an’ his friends ended up in old Dumbledore’s office.” Hagrid chuckled to himself at the last part.

“Dumbledore, he’s the headmaster isn’t he?”

“Yep, he’s been keepin’ an eye on you ever since I put you on that doorstep. He told me you were gettin’ on quite well, I always ask for updates. Though he never told me tha’ ye hadn’t been told about magic!” Yet again the groundskeeper smiled down at him, and Harry smiled back out of habit. 

Once Hagrid looked away, he frowned. Albus Dumbledore, the man he had assumed to be a good and kind wizard, had known what the Dursley’s did to him - and did nothing? Heck, the old man had even lied to Hagrid! In that moment Harry decided that Dumbledore was  _ not  _ someone he liked.

Harry was pulled from his thoughts when Hagrid stopped in front of a shop named “Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions”, Hagrid pushed him inside and told him that he would be back with ice cream. 

When he entered the shop there were only two other people in there, an older woman who he presumed to be Madam Malkin, and a young boy with pale skin and blond hair, who looked to be the same age as him. Harry was called over to where the two of them were by the woman and she started measuring him.

“Hello, I’m Draco Malfoy, what’s your name?” The blond boy - Draco - asked, seemingly friendly.

“I’m Harry Potter.” He smiled at him, Draco made a shocked face, but didn’t react in the same embarrassing way that the adults had.

“It’s nice to meet you Harry. I’m presuming you’re a first year like me?” Harry simply nodded in response. “Do you know what house you’ll be in?”

“House?” Draco sighed, but carried on talking.

“There are four houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. I’m hoping to be in Slytherin - all of my family have been.” Draco was now smiling rather proudly.

“Do you get to choose?” Harry was hoping someone did it for you - if he had to choose he would probably make the wrong choice.

“No, the sorting hat chooses for you. Gryffindor are where the brave, loyal and reckless go; Ravenclaw is where the clever and creative go; and Slytherin is where the cunning and ambitious go - though everyone thinks we’re evil because most dark wizards come from Slytherin. According to my parents the headmaster favours Gryffindors and isn’t a fan of Slytherins. Anyone who doesn’t fit into one of those houses goes into Hufflepuff.”

“Well that’s kind of rude, judging a load of people on the actions of a few wizards! I highly doubt all Slytherins are evil.” Harry looked back over to Draco, who was now beaming.

“If we both get into Slytherin, I bet we’re going to be great friends.”

“I hope so.”

Draco then said his goodbyes when his mother showed up to pay for his robes, promising to find him on the train. Not long after, Hagrid showed up with the ice cream he had promised. Harry then went to get his wand, where he learnt a little more about his parents from the shop owner named Ollivander. He was also surprised with another birthday present from Hagrid - a beautiful female snowy owl. 

Unfortunately, Harry still had a month more at the Dursley’s before being able to leave them for a school year. Luckily, he now had Dudley’s second bedroom as they were now terrified of him and his wand. For the entirety of August Harry was largely ignored by his relatives, being able to get his own food and drink whenever he wanted and not having to cook for the rest of them were benefits in his eyes. Though, towards the end Dudley did start to go back to his previous tactics. 

Harry had spent a lot of the time reading through his text books, leading to him naming his owl Hedwig, after a woman he found in “ _ A History of Magic _ ”. By the time September had rolled around Harry had managed to read through most of his textbooks at least once. He was looking forward to September if the books had anything to say about what life would be like there.

  
  


\----------

  
  


On the day that he was meant to be going to his new school his uncle dropped him off at the station, laughing at his ticket as the platform was supposedly non-existent, and drove off. Harry, however, wasn’t stupid and he knew that the station would probably be hidden from muggle eyes - much like Diagon Alley was. 

His theory proved to be right when he saw a family of redheads, most of which had similar trolleys to his, heading through the wall between platforms 9 and 10. Once he was on the platform he headed towards the train, lining up to get on behind the redheads from earlier. They seemed nice, especially when the twins helped Harry get his trunk onto the train.

Harry then found himself alone in a compartment - desperately hoping Draco would be true to his promise. While he settled down to wait he scratched Hedwig through the bars of her cage. A little while later Harry could finally let out the metaphorical breath that he had been holding as Draco opened the door to his compartment. He was followed in by a taller dark skinned boy, and a pale skinned girl with black hair who was around Harry’s height.

“Hey, I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” Draco smiled at him, sitting down next to him and placing his own owl on the other side of him. “These are my other friends, Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson.” He gestured to the other two, who gave him a polite nod. Pansy had a large grey tabby cat on her lap, but Blaise didn’t seem to have a pet.

“It’s nice to meet you.” Harry spoke in a slightly nervous tone, he had been under the impression that it would just be him and Draco. A stray piece of his messy hair fell over his eye and he swept it back to where it was.

“Merlin! You didn’t tell us he was Harry Potter!” Pansy exclaimed out of nowhere, causing his face to heat up. Draco simply shrugged, examining his nails.

“Whoops, must have slipped my mind.” 

“More like you didn’t want your parents knowing, your father would kill you if he knew you had made friends with a half-blood! Even if he is Harry freakin’ Potter.” Blaise chuffed, raising an eyebrow at Draco.

“Half-blood?” Harry queried, looking at the others with a puzzled expression.

“Yes, you’re a half-blood, but the rest of us are pure-bloods. Pure-bloods are ancient wizarding families that have no muggle or muggle-born blood in their family. The Potters - your family - used to be pure-bloods, but your mother was a mud, er... muggle-born, so you’re a half-blood.” Harry nodded along as Draco explained.

“Muggle-borns are witches or wizards with muggle parents.” Blaise added on helpfully.

They then changed the subject to talking about things they were looking forward to at Hogwarts. Harry learned that Draco’s eagle owl was named Drusilla, and Pansy’s cat was actually a kneazle and was named Lilac; he also learned that Blaise didn’t have a pet because he had wanted a crup or a raven, but his mother would only let him get smaller animals that he had no interest in. When the sweet trolley came around they managed to get a couple of everything between them. 

Halfway through their feast a dark skinned girl with a lot of bushy, dark brown hair knocked on their compartment door and then opened it.

“Hello, my name’s Hermione. I was wondering if any of you have seen a toad? A boy in my compartment named Neville lost his, and he’s very worried.” She looked around their compartment while saying so, obviously checking for it herself. Pansy giggled.

“A  _ toad _ ? Why in Merlin’s name would someone be upset over losing something as pathetic as that?” She was properly laughing now and Blaise had joined in, Harry felt himself stifling a giggle as well. Hermione was blushing now, clearly unsure of how to respond. Harry looked to Draco, who was looking the girl over with a smirk on his face.

“Look, even if this boy’s toad did wander in here, we would just let one of the owls or the kneazle eat it - so maybe you should just clear off...  _ mudblood _ .” He scowled at her with a look of disgust at the last part, and despite never hearing the word or understanding it, Harry knew by the look on the girl’s face that it was an insult.

Hermione didn’t stick around to say anything else, and Harry thought he could see tears forming in her eyes as she left. Blaise slammed the door shut and the four of them burst out in a fit of laughter, that had been worsened by the amount of sugar in their systems’. Harry knew he shouldn’t be laughing at her, he knew what it felt like to be her, his whole life he had been the victim of bullies - but for  _ once  _ he was on the other side, and there was no way he would compromise that. Besides, she  _ had  _ sounded rather ridiculous. After about five minutes they had calmed down enough to have a comprehensive conversation.

“What did that mean anyway?” Harry managed to huff out, while still trying to calm himself.

“It’s an insult to muggle-borns, it means that they have dirty blood because their parents are muggles.” Pansy replied with a rather smug look on her face. Harry was now unsure how he felt about that, but it was for him to figure out at a later point in time. Draco nodded.

“My father uses it all the time.”

  
  


\----------

  
  


By the time they arrived at Hogsmeade station the sky had turned dark and the stars were starting to come out. Harry could see them all so clearly as there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. However, the sight that amazed him most was Hogwarts itself, the castle was larger than anything he could have imagined, standing atop a cliff of rocks with light emitting from every window, causing the area around it to glow with a warm yellow light. Hagrid led the first years down the docks, where there were already a few small boats waiting for them. Harry followed his new friends into one, and no one else joined them as it was a maximum of four to a boat. 

In the boat next to theirs he could see one of the redheads from earlier, as well as Hermione (whose face was still a little puffy from the crying she had done) and another boy with blond hair, darker than Draco's though. Hagrid was making his way along the shoreline, pushing boats out onto the water, when Harry heard a croak, and the blond boy suddenly exclaimed “Trevor!”. The four of them burst out laughing once they realised that this was the boy who had lost his toad. Hagrid walked over to pick up Trevor and give him back to Neville, but once he had turned back to the other pupils Pansy piped up.

“Be careful with that pathetic little pet of yours, who knows what might happen to it if you let it go missing again.” Causing the four of them to burst out into laughter again, and for the other boy to pull his pet closer to him.

“Looks like he’s going to be a hufflepuff!” Harry remarked to his friends, causing them to laugh harder, making him feel proud.

When Hagrid got round to their boat he smiled at Harry, but then his smile turned into a frown - though he didn’t say anything. Soon they were off across the lake, heading towards the school, and no one could hold back their excitement. The closer they got, the more beautiful the castle was. Draco helped Harry out of the boat and the four of them were unable to speak on the way to the Great Hall, too entranced by their surroundings. Harry was ecstatic to be here, but his body was starting to fill with nerves in anticipation for the upcoming sorting ceremony - hopefully things would turn out like he wanted.


	2. Learning The Ropes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first years get sorted and Harry starts to discover what it means to be a Slytherin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, I did not expect to have another chapter done so soon, but here it is! One of my friends is beta-ing for me now so they might get posted a bit quicker than I originally thought. Also I'm getting my GCSE results tomorrow and I'm kinda nervous, hoping I dont fail any lol.

As the group of First Years stood in the entrance hall, waiting for McGonagall to let them into the Great Hall where the other students were, Draco was explaining to him about the Sorting Hat. He could see the redheaded boy glaring at him while trying to comfort Hermione. Harry considered saying something but knew he would just end up making the situation worse.

“Hey Malfoy, I see you’re following in your father’s footsteps.” The boy had wandered closer to the four of them, scowling at Draco, who just looked him up and down and snorted.

“Seems like you are too, you’re clearly a Weasley, your whole family is a load of blood traitors!” Draco almost matched him in height as he sauntered forward to intimidate him.

Before the confrontation could escalate, McGonagall came back out and led them into the Great Hall. Harry joined most of the other first years in audibly gasping as they entered, it was beautifully lit by candle chandeliers that were hanging from what must have been the ceiling, though he couldn’t tell because it looked like there was no roof. Ahead of him he heard Hermione explain to another girl that the ceiling was bewitched to look like the sky outside. There were also four tables lined with students, one for each house, and banners with the house symbols above their correlating tables.

At the end of the hall there was a fifth table where all the teachers sat, in the middle of them was a very old looking man -  _ Dumbledore  _ \- and Harry glared at him. That was the man who knew what he’d gone through, and he had done nothing, Supposedly a great wizard, though Harry doubted it very much. Harry knew he was going to take every opportunity he could get to spite this man, to show him his mistake.

The group of first years came to a stop at the end of the hall in front of an old shabby hat on a stool, which Harry presumed to be the sorting hat that Draco had mentioned. To his surprise the hat suddenly came alive in a very animated way, reminding him of a cartoon character, and then burst out into song. Once the song was over everyone in the hall clapped with varying levels of enthusiasm depending on how many times they had heard it through the years. Then Professor McGonagall started to call out students' names. 

Hermione Granger was placed in Gryffindor, which was a surprise to his friends, though he thought it suited her. Neville’s last name was Longbottom - rather unfortunate for him as it was very easy to make fun of. He was also sorted into Gryffindor, surprising everyone that had met him, though he managed to make a fool of himself when he ran off towards the table without taking the hat off and had to make a quick dash back - causing everyone to laugh. Draco was called up next and the hat had only just touched his head before it yelled out “SLYTHERIN!”, causing Draco to have a proud smile on his face as he walked towards the table. 

“Not a witch or wizard that went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin, bet all his friends will be Slytherins too.” The redhead told Hermione with a smirk, looking back towards Harry, Blaise and Pansy.

Pansy was called after that, also being placed into Slytherin, and Harry’s nerves grew. When McGonagall finally called out his name there were hushed whispers all around the hall as he walked towards the stool, ‘Did she say  _ Potter _ ?’, ‘Is that him, is it really him?’. He saw Hermione and the Weasley looking shocked once they figured out who he was.

“Hmm,” there was a small voice talking to him, “very interesting, not quite what I expected, you do still have plenty of courage and bravery, but there's much more of an ambition to prove yourself. Gryffindor wouldn't be a bad choice, but I think you’ll do better elsewhere - unless you have any objections?” Harry stayed silent, he knew that both of his parents had been Gryffindors, and the whole wizarding world expected him to follow in their footsteps, but that included Albus Dumbledore. “I’ll take that as a no then, well then, better be - SLYTHERIN!” Harry knew that everyone in the hall had heard the last word, and there was a wave of gasps and not-so-hushed conversations from people who couldn’t believe that he was a Slytherin. Harry was not used to all this attention, but didn’t let his embarrassment show as he walked towards Draco at the Slytherin table - most of the table were clapping for him, though there were a few who shot him a nasty look. He looked to the teachers’ table, wanting to see the headmaster’s reaction. He noted that he was giving him a curious, yet mildly inconvenienced look - making Harry smile to himself in his accomplishment. Next to him he could see a man with waxy skin and black hair giving him a curious look of his own.

“Who’s that next to Professor Quirrel?” He asked Draco.

“That’s Professor Snape, he’s head of Slytherin house.” Harry nodded in response and turned his attention back to the sorting ceremony.

Ronald Weasley was called and Harry finally knew the name of the redhead. He was placed in Gryffindor and there was a loud cheer from the table as he joined them, most of the shouting came from his three older brothers. Blaise was the last to be sorted and joined them in Slytherin with a grin.

The feast was the most amazing thing Harry had ever experienced. There was food of every kind, and he hadn’t had to cook anything or even clean up the plates. He also had treacle tart for the first time and declared it his favourite dessert.

During the feast he was introduced to the other first years, there were three other boys, Theodore Nott, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle; and three other girls, Daphne Greengrass, Tracey Davis and Millicent Bullstrode.

They talked about what lessons they were looking forward to, and Harry also learnt a lot about quidditch. On the Gryffindor table, Harry could see that Hermione had cheered up and was talking to Ron and Neville rather enthusiastically.

  
  


—————

  
  


Once the feast was over the Slytherin prefects - Gemma Farley and Terence Higgs - led them through the castle to the Slytherin common room, which was located in the dungeons.

As they walked through the castle, everyone was taking in the sights. Harry found it both strange and amazing that everything was lit by candlelight instead of electricity. He was also slightly spooked when he saw the paintings moving between their frames and talking. When they got to the staircases they were warned to always hold onto the banisters, as they were constantly moving. As the Slytherins started descending, Harry could hear the Gryffindor prefect Percy Weasley - one of Ron’s brothers - yelling out instructions and information to them as though he were the prime minister.

“I’d hate to have  _ him  _ as my prefect!” He told Draco, who laughed and agreed.

They stopped when they reached a wall, which confused Harry greatly. There were two small paintings either side of a stretch of bricks that were slightly more worn than the rest.

“This is the entrance to the Slytherin dungeons, to get in you have to say the password - this week’s password is anguis.” Gemma stated, as she said the last word the wall moved backwards and then to the right, revealing a passageway. Gemma and Terence went in first, with the rest of them following behind.

The common room was amazing, the walls were made of the same rough, grey stone that lined the rest of the lower levels of the school. The chamber was mainly dark green, with silver accents and dark wood that looked like mahogany for the tables and cabinets. All around there were tapestries of what Harry assumed to be previous Slytherins, as well as several other decorations that contributed to the room’s aesthetic. However, what amazed Harry the most was the full glass walls at the edge of the common room, that showed the depths of the lake they had sailed over earlier, showing that they weren’t just at the lowest levels of the castle, but they were actually rather far below ground level. It was giving a blue-green tint to the rest of the room. There were two sofas and four armchairs set up facing the windows, as well as two small coffee tables set up by the sofas. Around the room there were about three tables in large alcoves, some of the older Slytherins were sat at one playing chess - though Harry could have sworn he saw one of the pieces move. Finally, there was a fireplace with a very detailed mantle opposite the middle of the three table alcoves and there was another set of armchairs and a sofa facing it.

“The password changes fortnightly and it will be posted up on that notice board. There will also be things like quidditch try-outs and matches timings, as well as exam dates, study sessions and clubs - so make sure to look there when you need to.” Terence told the, pointing to a noticeboard that was hanging on the wall next to the fireplace.

“Okay, girls follow me to your dorms, boys - Terence will show you where to go.” Pansy waved goodbye to them and followed the other girls into another passageway - supposedly leading to their dorms. 

They then followed Terence to their own passage, where they were confronted with staircases leading up and down - luckily Terence led them up two staircases to a floor with four doors, he showed them to the two on the right.

“Okay, Nott, Crabbe and Goyle - you’re in this one,” - he pointed to one of the doors - “Potter, Malfoy, Zabini - the other one is yours. Curfew is at 9, but as long as you are in the dungeons you won’t get in trouble. Feel free to ask anyone for help if you get confused or lost.” With that Terence left and the boys went into their respective dorms.

In front of Harry there were three identical four-poster beds, each with dark green covers and pillows - the bed frames seemed to be made of mahogany. In the middle of the ceiling there was a candle-lit chandelier, and there were windows on two of the walls. The water outside the window was a paler colour than that in the common room - indicating that they were near the surface of the lake. To the right of him there was another door, which Blaise opened and told them was a bathroom. The beds were each pressed against a different wall, and at the end of them were large chests with their trunks on top. Harry’s was on the wall on the left, Draco’s was opposite his and Blaise’s was on the wall opposite the door. The boys started to unpack the contents of their trunks, putting them away neatly in the chests and shoving the trunks under their beds for the end of term.

“Where are our owls?” Harry asked once the three of them had sat down on their pillows on the floor - Draco and Blaise had said they were going to teach him to play a game called ‘ _ Exploding Snap’ _ .

“They were taken to the owlery with everyone else's’. We can go and visit them tomorrow if you want,” Draco told him with a kind smile, and Harry nodded in response.

They played three rounds of exploding snap, with Blaise winning two matches and Harry winning one, before going to sleep. They wanted to be fully rested before their first day of school.

Unfortunately, with all the excitement still buzzing in his system, it took Harry a while to be tired enough to fall asleep. Instead he milled over the events on the train and boats. He knew that he shouldn’t have laughed at Hermione, and decided he wouldn’t again - unless he had good reason to. He also knew that he would never, ever use the word ‘mudblood’ as an insult - it wasn’t right and he knew it, especially since his mother was a muggle-born and he would hate if anyone ever called her a mudblood. Finally, Harry decided that he wouldn’t specifically make fun of anyone unless they did it first, but he wasn’t going to stop his friends from doing so. After thinking through all that in his head, he was eventually able to get to sleep.

  
  


\----------

  
  


The next morning Harry woke up before both Draco and Blaise, he didn’t quite know what time it was, but he could hear a bit of movement outside so he figured he hadn’t woken up ridiculously early. As quietly as he could, Harry opened his chest to get out his uniform and toothbrush and then creeped across the room to their bathroom. 

Harry loved his uniform, it was the first set of clothes that he owned that properly fit him. He found that his previously all black and grey clothes now had the slytherin colours in the same places as the older students and wondered how this had happened. Once he had gotten dressed he tried desperately to tame his hair - but gave up in the end as he was sure that his efforts were only making it worse. By the time he came out of the bathroom Blaise was up and Draco was starting to stir. 

“Merlin, Harry, you really need some of your grandfather’s hair potion.” Draco stated groggily.

“My grandfather’s  _ what _ ?” Harry turned to look at Draco as though he had gone completely mad.

“Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion, it's a brand of hair potion that your grandfather - Fleamont Potter - made. It’s pretty good actually.” Harry was looking at Draco with amusement, and then realised that Draco’s bed hair was slightly curly at the ends - the opposite of the straight, slicked-back look from yesterday.

“Interesting to know that my grandfather made a hair potion.”

Blaise walked out of the bathroom wearing his robes, and Draco dragged himself out of bed into the bathroom. Harry giggled and grabbed his uniform for him, handing it to his very sleepy friend, who was just staring at himself in the mirror.

After almost 20 minutes Draco came back out, his bed head was gone and he looked almost fully awake. The three of them headed down into the common room where Pansy was sitting on the sofa, petting Lilac.

“Finally! I’ve been waiting for half an hour, you know they start serving breakfast at half six right?” Pansy told them as she walked over, her kneazle following her.

“Blame Draco, he spent twenty minutes getting ready!” Blaise laughed.

“Well, at least I don’t look half-dead anymore!” The four of them burst out laughing and headed out of the common room.

The journey to the Great Hall was a little more intimidating than he had presumed it to be. Everywhere he looked there were people staring at him, whispering things about him. The only thing that managed to keep his courage up was Draco placing a hand on his back, giving him a smile and telling him to ‘ignore them, they’re just jealous.’

When they arrived at the breakfast table Gemma made her way over to the group and gave them all their timetables - Harry was pleased to know that he had every class with his friends. The first lesson of the day was Charms class with Professor Flitwick, Blaise pointed him out on the teachers table and explained that he was half-goblin. Harry enjoyed his breakfast, revealing in the fact that he could eat as much or as little as he liked - and he didn’t have to eat anything that was burnt. Once they had all finished breakfast they headed out of the Great Hall to charms - or at least they would have, if they had known the way. 

“We should have asked one of the prefects where to go before leaving,” Draco whined.

“Why don’t we ask that Gryffindor?” Harry asked, pointing over to an older Gryffindor student that was currently helping a group of second year Ravenclaw students find their way to the divination classroom. 

“You can, but I’ll stay over here thanks.” Blaise nodded along with Draco, but Pansy followed him over.

“Excuse me, could you tell us the way to the Charms classroom?” Harry asked once the Ravenclaws left. The Gryffindor looked at the two of them and scowled.

“No, why would I help two  _ Slytherins _ ?” He said the last word with a tone of disgust.

“But you helped the Ravenclaws!” Pansy pointed out accusingly.

“Yeah, because Ravenclaws aren't evil. Now leave me alone, snakes.” He walked away from them without another word. Harry was left in stunned silence, but Pansy dragged him back over to the other two.

“I could see  _ that _ coming from a mile away.” Blaise shook his head as he spoke.

“What do you mean?” Harry asked.

“Don’t you remember what I told you when we first met? Everyone thinks that all Slytherins are evil.”

“I thought you were exaggerating.” 

“Unfortunately not.”

“Slytherins, shouldn’t you be on your way to class?” They turned around to see their head of house, Professor Snape, standing behind them.

“We were going to, but we realised we have no clue where charms is,” Pansy spoke, neglecting to tell him about the Gryffindor.

Snape then gave them directions to the correct class room and they headed on their way. Luckily they were able to arrive on time, and took their seats on the opposite side of class to the Gryffindors that they shared the lesson with.

Harry sat next to Draco, and Pansy and Blaise sat with each other, next to them. Sat opposite him on the Gryffindor side he could see Ron seated next to Neville, with Hermione on his other side. 

Pansy leaned over to him and Draco, “Looks like Weasley attracts losers. A muggle-born and a coward, who’d want to be friends with them?” He and Draco laughed, though Harry did feel a twinge of guilt - then he remembered the Gryffindor from earlier and the guilt disappeared. 

Professor Flitwick’s lesson was on the levitation charm -  _ Wingardium Leviosa.  _ Much to their annoyance, Hermione was the first in the class to master the charm. Draco called it beginner’s luck, Pansy said it was because she was a nerd. Either way she managed to get ten house points for Gryffindor.

“It levi-O-sa, not levio-SA!” They all snickered when they heard the bushy haired girl lecturing the Weasley. Harry was just about to try the charm again when there was a loud explosion on the Gryffindor’s side. The boy next to Neville had somehow managed to blow up his feather and he was now covered in soot.

  
“Mr Finnigan  _ please  _ be more careful, I’m not even sure how you managed to do that!” The professor rushed over to clean up the workspace and give the boy a new feather.

“Wingardium leviosa” He heard Draco say next to him, his feather then started to float up in the air with the movements of his wand.

“Well done Mr Malfoy, seven points for Slytherin.” Flitwick told him as he turned back around. Harry was then determined to get the spell right, and, with Draco’s help, he managed to be the fourth person to get the spell, Pansy and Blaise following after him.

As they left to their next class Harry felt his whole body was buzzing with happiness, he had done his first spell, had found great friends, and didn’t have to see the Dursley's for another few months. If Harry didn’t know any better he would think he was dreaming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a comment or kudos if you liked it, they're really appreciated.


	3. Unexpected Happenings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flying, potions and picnics, as the Slytherins come to finish their first week at the wizarding school they find themselves enjoying their new normal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a clue why I called this chapter what I did but it is what it is. I have no clue how long this chapter is either but I hope you like it. Also Draco's pov, yay!

Draco had had the best week of his life, and it wasn’t even over yet. Life at Hogwarts was so much better than at home. For starters, Hogwarts was much more lively than Malfoy Manor - even the Slytherin dungeons, the place that reminded him most of his home, were so much less dreary than the never ending dark halls and cold, empty rooms. Then, there was also the fact that he could spend everyday with his friends - which he preferred to his usual company of adults, and other boring pure-blood kids that had no taste for fun. Draco was already looking for an excuse to stay at Hogwarts instead of heading home for Christmas.

The thing he liked most, however, was his newest friend - Harry Potter. To everyone’s surprise he had been sorted into Slytherin with him, Blaise and Pansy, but Draco loved it. Harry was great, he always stood up for him whenever any of the weasels - or any Gryffindor for that matter - made a snide comment in passing. He also loved to see the excitement and curiosity on his face whenever he was introduced to something new, he had learnt on the train journey that Harry had been raised by muggle relatives on his mother’s side - though he seemed rather reluctant to talk about them, Draco presumed he had been embarrassed. Currently they were on their way to their first flying lesson, and Draco was explaining to him how quidditch worked. 

“You know Harry, I think your dad was on the Gryffindor quidditch team when he was at Hogwarts.” Blaise added into their conversation.

“Really?” Harry was once again doing that thing where he was super excited over things Draco thought were normal.

“Yeah I think so, we can check later - or you can ask Madame Hooch.”

The four of them rounded the corner, out into the courtyard to the stretch of land opposite the quidditch pitch. Harry stopped to stare wide-eyed at it before Draco grabbed his arm and pulled him over to where the students were starting to gather. Before they could actually get started with learning how to fly - which Draco doubted he’d need as he already had a broomstick of his own at home - Madame Hooch felt the need to give them a lecture on the theory of flying.

When she finally let them get started they all lined up next to their brooms and got ready to take off. However, Longbottom - the cowardly Gryffindor, as Draco liked to call him - decided to take off earlier than the others. Draco and the other Slytherins all laughed as they watched him, completely out of control of his broom, flying around everywhere while Hooch was trying to get him to land. In the end, he fell off the broom with a big  _ thud _ , landing on his wrist and audibly breaking it, causing Madame Hooch to run over to him.

“Oh dear, better get you to the hospital wing.” She helped him up and wandered back over to the group of first years, “if any of you leave the ground before I come back you will be in detention every night until Christmas.” With that threatening statement she turned her back on the students and guided Longbottom to the hospital wing.

Immediately the Slytherins started making fun of the cowardly lion, though Draco spotted something nearby where the boy had been flying and wandered over to it, Harry following him. When he picked it up he realised that it was the remembrall Longbottom had been showing off in the great hall that morning, it didn’t change colour for him and he smirked. Unfortunately the weasel had spotted the two of them and marched over.

“What do you want, blood traitor?” He sneered.

“Give that to me, it’s Neville's and I doubt you’re planning to give it back to him.” He held out his hand as he spoke:

Draco looked behind the Weasley to Harry, who smiled and nodded at him before getting ready to hop on his broom. He turned to look back at the Gryffindor in front of him and smirked.

“Alright Weasley, you can have it - if you can catch it.” Then he tossed the ball to Harry who was already hovering in the air, and the two of them took off. 

The redhead glanced back to his friends, then up to where the two of them were taunting him and flew up as well, ignoring the mudblood’s advice. To say he was impressed by his friend’s flying skills would be an understatement. Every time he thought Ron was going to catch it, Harry managed to swipe it out of his reach. There were various shouts from the crowd below, depending on what house they were from. Of course, all good moments come to an end.

“Mr Potter, Mr Malfoy, Mr Weasley, return to the ground immediately.” Snape’s drawling voice called out from below, the three followed his instructions instantaneously.

Harry had been holding the remembrall when they flew down but he slipped it into Draco’s hand and he slipped it into his pocket.

“Potter, come with me - Malfoy, give the remembrall back to one of Longbottom’s friends, if he has any.” The Professor then gestured for Harry to follow him, the other boy did so, though he looked back to Draco with a worried expression.

Draco threw the remembrall at Weasley, hoping that it would instead smash against the ground - it did not. He wandered over to Pansy and Blaise but overheard Granger hoping that Snape was going to give him and Harry detention.

“What do you think Snape wants with Harry?” Blaise asked the two of them while they waited for Madame Hooch to return.

“I don’t know, I just hope he’s not in trouble - it was my idea after all.” 

“Aww, Draco you’ve gone soft.” Pansy jeered at him, causing him to turn red.

“No I haven’t! He’s my friend, that’s why I don’t want him to take all the blame.” Pansy just laughed at him.

When he saw Madame Hooch coming back he quickly walked over to Granger, from what he had seen, there was a high probability she was going to tell on him and Harry. Luckily, he had some leverage.

“If you tell Madame Hooch, your muggle-loving boyfriend will get detention as well, do you really want that?” He sneered.

“Well…” She seemed to be having a conflict of thoughts.

“He’s got a point Hermione, my mum will murder me if I get detention in the first week!.”

“Ugh, fine, I suppose I’ll keep my mouth shut this time.” Draco smiled and walked back over to his friends.

He was also smart enough to come up with a good enough alibi when Hooch asked where Harry was, saying Snape had wanted to talk to him about something - which, surprisingly, wasn’t an outright lie. The rest of the lesson went on as normal, though Harry didn’t return to learn any of the basics - not that he needed it. He made a mental note to ask Harry where he learnt to fly, he was sure he had said he hadn’t flown before but the display he put on suggested otherwise.

As soon as the lesson was finished he dragged Pansy and Blaise in the direction of Snape’s office - though they didn’t have to go that far before Harry literally ran into them. 

“You guys won’t believe what happened!” He almost yelled at them.

“Well I’m going to assume something good considering the look on your face.” Blaise scoffed.

“I’m the new seeker on the Slytherin quidditch team!” In that moment Harry reminded Draco of a little puppy. 

“Nice joke Harry, think of something a little more believable next time though.” Pansy chuckled.

“It’s not a joke, I really am. Snape saw us flying around and thought I’d be a good addition to the team as a seeker.” He sounded really sincere and Draco wondered if he was, in fact, being truthful.

“There’s no way.”

“You can ask Snape if you want, or Marcus Flint - he’s the team captain - he really wasn’t that pleased when Snape told him I was going to be the new seeker,” They had started walking again, now heading back to the Slytherin common room. 

“You’re actually being serious aren’t you?” Draco asked him.

“Yeah!” Then he stopped, “weren’t we going to see if my dad was on the team when he was here?” 

“Oh, that’s back towards the quidditch pitch, we checked it and he was - his name is on one of the trophies.” 

“Oh, cool.” Harry seemed a little put off as they continued towards the common room rather than turning around. 

When they got into the common room things were mostly normal, but Draco knew something was off when Flint, Pucey and Bletchley glared at Harry as they walked into the common room. Then they started towards the four of them and Draco was not looking forward to the confrontation. 

“If we lose the quidditch tournament this year, it’ll be on you - filthy half-blood.” Pucey scowled at Harry, spitting out the last words.

“You best hope you’re actually a good seeker, because I don’t care that you’re meant to be some savoir, if we lose you’re gonna need someone else to save you.” Flint practically growled at him, with three older students ganging up on Harry, Draco knew he had to do something.

“Well you don’t need to worry about that, I’ve seen Harry fly and he’s a lot better than some of you. Besides, it’s not like he’s a mudblood.” Then he led his friends up to their dorm without staying to hear what they had to say.

For the rest of the afternoon they distracted Harry from the confrontation by teaching him how to play gobstones and playing exploding snap.

\----------

The next morning Harry got an invite from Hagrid to come to his hut after class was finished, and Harry asked if any of them wanted to come with him - to which they all said yes. He could tell that Harry was very excited. Their first lesson that morning was potions with the Gryffindors, taught by Professor Snape. Draco had met the man outside of Hogwarts and knew that he was the kind of teacher to spring a test on an unwilling victim, so he made sure that he, Harry, Blaise and Pansy had all been reading through the book that week - they were even testing each other on it.

In the end Snape interrogated Neville Longbottom, who managed to get all the answers wrong - causing him to lose three house points for Gryffindor. Draco and his friends were able to gain some for Slytherin by confidently answering the rest of their professor’s questions throughout the lesson - this was made all the more sweet when he ignored most Gryffindors who had their hands up, including one Hermione Granger, who put her hand up for every question. Even the other Gryffindors looked fed up with her. After the lesson they headed to lunch with the rest of the class.

“Hey Granger, I just realised why none of the other girls in your house wanna hang out with you.” Pansy turned around, starting to walk backwards to face Granger, Longbottom and Weasley. “It's because you’re an insufferable know-it-all.”

“Shut up Parkinson.” The weasel was the one to speak, which gave Draco all the ammunition he needed.

“Ohoho, you standing up for your girlfriend, eh Weasley?” Now all four of them were facing the Gryffindors and none of them were walking towards the Great Hall for lunch.

“She’s not my girlfriend!” He had gone bright red as soon as Draco had said it.

“Oh yeah, she’s Longbottom’s right? An idiot and a nerd - just perfect for each other.” Blaise joined in with them.

“I’m not going out with either of them, for your information - and I don’t care if you think I’m a know-it-all, I’m smarter than you four.”

“Oh really? Then why are you in Gryffindor rather than Ravenclaw or Slytherin - everyone knows that the real geniuses come from those houses, everyone in Gryffindor has thick skulls. It’s why you all rush head-first into things.” 

“Not everyone is their house stereotype!”

“Evidenced by your cowardly lion Longbottom.” Pansy smirked.

“Whatever, there’s no point in talking to you lot - I don’t want to be corrupted the same way you corrupted him.” Weasley nodded over to Potter - who had been laughing along, but not joining in.

“They didn’t  _ corrupt  _ me so just mind your own damn business Weasley.” Harry was quick to retort back at him, sticking his tongue out at the end. 

They then walked to lunch, after all glaring at the Gryffindor gang. Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass sat near them that lunch and the six of them discussed weekend plans of homework and exploring the Hogwarts grounds. Harry had the idea of bringing Hedwig and Drusilla out with them so they could fly around the highlands, and they agreed to do it the next day after breakfast - Daphne was also going to bring her owl Caesar with them. 

Once lunch was over they followed Harry down to Hagrid’s hut. Draco wasn’t really looking forward to it - the gamekeeper was grubby and smelly and his father had told him bad things about him, but he was still going, because Harry wanted him to meet the oaf properly.

Harry knocked on the door and from inside there was the sound of shuffling and also something smashing, before the door was opened and they were greeted by Hagrid. However, before they could get too far in they were also met by a fierce looking dog.

“Back away from ‘em Fang, ‘ere frien’ly.” The half-giant told the dog, who immediately let them past him and into the house.

“Thanks for inviting us Hagrid.” Harry smiled at the gamekeeper as they all took a seat in the far too small living room.

“Of course, I wanted to see how your firs’ week went, and to congratulated out on gettin’ on the quidditch team!”

For the next few hours they stayed in the hut, informing Hagrid of how their week went - though making sure to leave out most of the making fun of Gryffindor bits, as they knew Hagrid wouldn’t approve. Just before they were about to leave, Harry looked over at a clipping from The Daily Prophet on Hagrid’s table. The clipping read:

_GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST_

_ Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of dark wizards or witches unknown. _

_ Gringotts’ goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied that same day. _

_ ‘But we’re not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what’s good for you,’ said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon. _

“Hagrid! The break-in happened on my birthday! What if it happened while we were there?” Harry had yelled out, slightly surprising Draco.

“Might well’ve done.” Hagrid coughed and didn’t meet any of their eyes. He then ushered them out, making up excuses as to why they couldn’t stay.

When they headed back to the castle for a bit of rest before dinner, the four of them were still deep in conversation, reflecting on their past week and expressing hopes for the many, many weeks to come. Though Draco could tell that something was bothering Harry.

  
  


\----------

When Saturday morning came around there was a buzz of excitement in their dorm, with all three boys getting ready for their day out with their friends. As usual, Draco was the last to get up, when he was gathering his more casual clothes for the day, Harry cake out of the bathroom. He couldn’t help but stare at the boy, he was wearing clothes akin to those he wore on the train - they were oversized and definitely muggle in origin. If he walked outside in those he would be ridiculed.

“Harry, are all your clothes too big for you?” Draco didn’t  _ mean  _ to be so blunt, but he was in shock a little.

“Uh, well they’re hand-me-downs so…” Harry visibly blushed, staring down at the floor as though it was vastly more interesting.

He thought for a moment, before going into his chest and getting out his sewing kit, a magical tape measure as well as another set of clothes, which he gave to Harry.

“I’ll take in all your clothes later, for now just wear my clothes - they’ll still be a little big for you, but you’ll look better than you currently do in those clothes.” Draco would have smiled if he wasn’t so tired.

“You can sew?” Blaise almost yelled from behind them.

“Yes Zabini I can sew, my mother taught me - it’s the muggle way as well, because she taught me before I could use magic.” He turned back to Harry who was looking at him in shock. “Are you alright Harry?”

“I- I- are you sure you want me to have your clothes?” He looked rather panicked.

“Yes Harry, you’re only borrowing them for the day. Now come on, we have to get changed or we’ll be late to breakfast.”

After that, both of them hurried to get dressed, then headed down into the common room to catch up with Pansy. She told them that Tracey and Daphne had gone ahead to breakfast, so they all headed there themselves. The clothes Draco had given Harry were his most casual, ones that he wouldn’t wear in public unless he really had to, but they suited Harry. He was wearing the only pare of jeans he owned - they were black so it was hard to tell unless you actually felt the material, Harry had kept on his grubby white t-shirt, but it was underneath a very thin green jumper. Over the top he was wearing one of Draco’s robes, it was black with shimmering green leaf-like patterns all over it.

“Hey Pansy, did you know that Draco knows how to sew - the muggle way.” Blaise told her while they were walking, to which she burst out laughing.

“Oh yeah, how do you know that?” Before Blaise could tell her the real reason, Draco interjected.

“I had to fix a tear in my robe this morning.” He smiled at the girl, but then gave his other friend a look telling him to shut up.

While at breakfast, they decided that today would be a picnic, so that they didn’t have to worry about going too far and not being back in time for lunch. Blaise, Pansy and Tracey went down to the kitchens after eating, while Draco, Harry and Daphne went up to the owlery to get their owls. Caesar, Daphne’s owl, was a very beautiful looking barn owl - though he wasn’t too friendly. Since they had been to visit Drusilla and Hedwig on the first day, the two owls had been getting along as well as him and Harry were. Just as they were leaving, they ran into Granger, Longbottom and Weasley, who were seemingly going to get an owl to deliver their letters.

“Can’t afford an owl of your own, Weasley?” He snarked.

“Not everyone wants an owl, Malfoy.” Granger butted in. She then led her friends further on towards the owlery so they couldn’t continue the conversation.

“Tsk, those Gryffindors are such cowards.”

By the time they met up with the others, the sun was starting to properly come out and the crisp morning air was being replaced with a warm, gentle breeze. The six of them eventually sat themselves beneath a small willow tree by the lake - which was quiet at this time in the morning. Drusilla, Hedwig and Caesar we’re flying around, searching for mice and other small creatures to hunt - though they came back every so often to check in and get pets. They had all bought their potions homework with them to complete with each other’s help, but with all of them there it only took half an hour for everyone to finish.

Blaise, Pansy and Tracey had managed to get quite a haul from the kitchens for their picnic, including mini sandwiches, sausage rolls, pork pies and even jam tarts for pudding. They talked about quidditch and speculated over which teachers were secretly dating, as well as which students were. Eventually they wandered back to the castle at around half four, returning their owls to the owlery and then going back to the dorms to play wizard’s chess and exploding snap in the common room. 

When they finally got back into their dorm at half eight, they were met with a surprise on Harry’s bed. There was a very long rectangular package sitting waiting for him, as well as a set of quidditch robes, with his name on the label of the package. Draco and Blaise sat around him, waiting for him to open it. Once he did there was a Nimbus 2000 sat on his bed surrounded by wrapping paper. No one had signed the label, and Draco had assumed it had been from Snape - but Harry had told him that Snape said he would use one of the school’s brooms, so it was unlikely. Harry had practice with the Slytherin quidditch team the next day, so the parcel and uniform had arrived just in time. They went to sleep that night with difficulty due to the excitement of the new items - Harry had agreed to let both of them try it out after practice.


	4. Three-headed Mutts & Annoying Gryffindors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry starts to settle into Hogwarts and starts figuring out the pros and cons of his new normal. Unknowingly, he and his friends stumble upon one of the many mysteries within the school walls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been trying to get this finished for days but I have a ton of school work (even though I don't even start until next week) but here it is. I will be trying to get out chapters as quick as possible but they won't be as quick as they have been. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Harry didn’t expect the next few weeks to be very eventful, unfortunately he was wrong. After Draco called Hermione a mudblood for the second time that week, Ron Weasley had demanded a wizard's duel with him - Hermione and Harry had been chosen as the seconds respectively. Since wizard’s duels were against the rules, they had arranged for it to happen at midnight so that no teachers were around to catch them. Once the details had been sorted out and the Gryffindors had wandered off, Draco smirked - and Harry knew that look. While he had only known his new friends for a couple of weeks, Harry was starting to pick up on things like routines, Draco’s facial expressions were one of these things. The blond haired Slytherin was extremely dramatic, evidenced by the extremity of his expressions. Currently, he was wearing his ‘I have a brilliant plan’ smirk, and Harry was keen to see what his plan was.

“Does anyone have a piece of paper and a quill?”

“I have some paper here.” Blaise pulled out his attempt at a paper crane that Harry had seen him trying to fold during History of Magic, unfolded it and passed it to Draco.

Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out a pen, “You can use this to write,” he spoke, passing it to Draco.

“What  _ is  _ this?” All three of his new friends were looking at it curiously, as though they had never seen a pen before - then Harry realised that they might not have.

“It’s a pen, I nicked it from my cousin’s room.” Harry smiled fondly at the memory - he had never stolen directly from Dudley’s room, he usually took old and broken things from the rubbish that were to be thrown out anyway, but taking the pen directly from his cousin’s desk was a small victory that had managed to keep Harry’s spirits up whenever he looked at it. “Muggles use pens to write, it's like a quill - but it’s not a feather, and the ink is stored inside instead of separately.” He explained as best he could.

“Muggles are weird.” Pansy affirmed to the group, Blaise and Draco nodded.

“Just write whatever you’re going to write.” Harry shoved his hands in his pockets and avoided eye contact with his friends. He made a mental note to avoid bringing up muggle things in the future.

Draco was hesitant to use the pen, but did it in the end. On the note he wrote ‘ _ There’s a duel happening at midnight in the trophy room _ ’. Then they headed to their common room, via Filch’s office - slipping the note under his door without drawing any attention to themselves. The four of them eagerly awaited midnight, occupying themselves with homework, games and sweets. At a quarter to midnight they snuck down into the common room and out of the dungeons in a very Slytherin like manner. Sticking to the shadows and only communicating with hand gestures as they scoped the castle, heading towards the trophy room. Finally, they reached the room and hid in an alcove behind a statue of armour, eagerly awaiting the show. Moments later, two Gryffindors wandered past them unknowingly, Harry wasn’t surprised that Longbottom hadn’t joined them - his friends had taken to calling him the ‘cowardly lion’.

“No surprise they aren’t here yet, little cowards. I bet they won’t even show up. Malfoy talks like he’s powerful and all but he’d never get into a real fight.” Weasley’s voice could be heard from inside the room, obviously talking his companion’s ear off, “You know, I reckon his family cursed Potter - probably why he ended up as an evil git in the snake house.”

“Ron, you can’t just make accusations like that! Besides, Dumbledore would know if Harry had been cursed.” Granger was actually making an effort to whisper, unlike her companion. Harry found himself scowling at the mention of the old wizard - especially in such an adoring tone.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the four Slytherins saw Filch approaching and backed further into their hiding spot. As the caretaker hobbled past them he was grumbling quietly to himself about ‘trouble maker students’. The following action was as entertaining for the Slytherins as they had hoped, when Filch walked out of the room he was gripping both Weasley and Granger by their robes and pulling them towards Professor McGonagall's office. They waited a few minutes before following them, still sticking to the shadows and remaining silent - though now they all bore grins. It was as they approached the moving staircases when things started to go wrong. The two Gryffindors had made a break for it and recklessly jumped from the staircase they were on to another as it had passed, leaving Filch to call out after them angrily, with Mrs Norris hissing at them. To avoid being caught themselves the Slytherins hopped off the staircase as soon as it stopped, they then rushed towards the closest door - it didn’t open at first, but Blaise pointed his wand at the door and muttered a spell, causing it to burst open. They scurried in and quickly but quietly pushed it shut, all breathing a sigh of relief once they were all inside. Hoping to hear if Filch managed to catch the Gryffindors. Something that all students learnt within the first few weeks, Filch didn’t remember what students looked like unless he caught them a lot - meaning that Weasley and Granger might very well get away with it.

From beside him, Harry heard a high-pitched squeak from Draco - who was no longer facing the door - the other three turned around to see what he was looking at. In those few moments, Harry hadn’t had long to think about what was waiting behind them, but of all things that he might have predicted, Cerberus was not one of them. 

At St Grogory’s primary school he had learnt about Greek and Roman mythology in year three, and the mythical creatures had deeply fascinated him. He remembered that once, his aunt and uncle had asked Dudley about his day and what he had learnt at school, his cousin just replied with a shrug at the second question - Harry, however, had been eager to share his knowledge, it had ended him with a slap on the face from his uncle and no dinner but extra housework from his aunt. He was bought out of trance when Pansy made a high-pitched noise not dissimilar from the one Draco had made. The gigantic, three-headed dog was just opening its eyes. Slowly but efficiently, Blaise made another grab for the door - opening it only enough for him to slip through, the others doing the same. Pansy was the last through and just as she got out the giant dog had started to bark and scratch at the door. Knowing that the sound would inevitably attract a teacher, the young Slytherins hurried back to their common room. Once they were finally back to safety, they dropped down onto one of the sofas to breathe for a minute or two.

“Merlin, that was an eventful evening.” Blaise huffed out, breaking the silence.

“I just want to know who in Merlin’s name thought to keep a three headed dog in a school!” Pansy almost whined, clearly still shaken up.

“Dumbledore apparently, didn’t you notice we were on the third floor corridor? The old bat warned students not to go there!” Harry told them, trying to hide the anger from his voice.

“He’s got it guarding something,” Draco spoke up, all of them turned to look at him curiously, “Didn’t you see? The thing was standing on a trap door.”

“Well excuse me if I was focusing on it’s gigantic mouths - three of them by the way, not just one mouth - instead of the bleeding floor!” Pansy sneered at the blond, who just looked unamused in response.

“What if…” The dots in Harry’s brain were starting to connect, “what if the vault that was broken into was Hagrid’s vault, and maybe whatever was in that little bag is what the beast is guarding. It makes sense, out of all the adults at Hogwarts, who would be most likely to own his own Cerberus?” 

“You are a genius Harry Potter.” Blaise smiled at him.

“We should ask Hagrid about it, I want to know what’s so important that they have that giant beast guarding it.” Draco murmured.

“Or maybe just Harry, last time we went over the half-breed wasn’t too pleased to see us there.” Pansy’s use of the term ‘half-breed’ made Harry cringe.

“Yeah, I think that’s best - especially if you’re going to call him a half-breed, Pansy.” He gave the girl a look, but she just shrugged it off.

After that, the four of them sauntered into their dorm rooms and fell asleep very quickly, due to the exhaustion of the night’s events. 

\----------

The next morning, the four of them woke later than usual, yet still managed to look marginally awake when they sauntered down to breakfast. Much to their dismay, it seemed that the Gryffindors had managed to get away from Filch. Throughout the meal Weasley, Granger and Longbottom were shooting glares their way. When they had finished their food and moved to get up, they saw the Gryffindors doing the same and waited outside the hall for a confrontation. Luckily, they had prepared for this.

“Should’ve known you Slytherins were a load of bloody cowards!” Weasley was the first one to speak.

“I have no clue what you’re talking about, Weasley, as far as I’m aware it’s you lot who are the bloody cowards.” Draco sneered at him, purposefully egging him on.

“What are you talking about, you lot never showed up!” 

“Yes we did, we got to the trophy room at about ten past midnight - none of you showed up so we went back to the common room.” Harry was sneering at him now too.

“We were there, just had to leave when Filch showed up.”

“Make whatever excuses you want Weasley, we know that you lot are all cowards now - clearly taking after Longbottom here.” Pansy shook her head as though she was ashamed with them, but she was wearing a smug smile.

“We’ll have a rematch then.” 

“Not likely, I don’t want to lose sleep from being stood up by Hogwarts’ most cowardly lions. Besides, we have astronomy tonight. Now, we’re off to class, don’t bother us any further.” Draco turned around and started walking away, the rest of them followed. 

It was a Wednesday so they had herbology with the Ravenclaws first period. Out of the other three houses, Ravenclaws were the ones that cared the least about the Slytherins, there were a fair few pure-bloods from influential families in the house meaning that there were occasionally inter-house friendships and romances between Ravenclaws and Slytherins. However, the house also had its fair share of half-bloods and muggle-borns, so relations were few and far between. Harry hadn’t been finding herbology overly exciting as the novelty of moving and occasionally talking had quickly worn off, Draco and Pansy seemed to have found the same - Blaise was the only one taking an actual interest in the lessons and Harry had been asking him for a bit of help with the homework. He was eagerly awaiting the end of the lesson as he was planning on going to meet Hagrid to ask him about the three-headed dog and whatever it was guarding. Finally, Harry said goodbye to his friends and headed down to the groundskeeper's hut, knocking on the door and then stepping back and waiting for the door to be answered.

“Oh Harry, what a lovely surprise, come on in.” Hagrid smiled at him and then awkwardly shuffled back into his hut to make room for him. “No friends this time?” Harry couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed at the hopeful tone in his voice.

“Uh no, they’re busy studying.”

They spent a while talking about Harry’s classes and how quidditch practice was coming along - he purposefully neglected to tell Hagrid about Flint’s threats and his harsh training, though he hadn’t told his friends about the training either. He was used to being yelled at and pushed around so Harry just grit his teeth and carried on, not showing anyone how it was getting to him. When he had first heard about Hogwarts and that he would be attending he dreamed up so many different scenarios, many of which had slowly been smashed to pieces - no one was going to take him away from the Dursley’s, the one person who knew clearly didn’t care about how they treated Harry. This had just ended up fueling his hate for adults, they acted like they knew better than children and often ended up belittling and dismissing them because of this. Two good things had come out of Hogwarts though, first was that he only had to spend six weeks out of every year with his relatives, and the second was that he finally had some friends, people that actually liked him. 

“Hagrid, the other day me and my friends got lost on the way to one of our classes, and we accidentally went to the third floor corridor,” Harry begun to recite his lie to the half-giant, knowing that he and his friends might have gotten in trouble if he told the truth, “And we heard Filch coming along so we hid in this room at the end of the corridor.” He could see that the groundskeeper was getting worried, but he continued. “When we were inside we saw this giant three-headed dog, and Draco saw that it was standing on top of a trap door. I figured since you have an affinity for magical creatures that you might know why he was there and what he was guarding?” Harry did his best to look as innocent as possible when asking the question.

“Oh, well uh, the dog’s name is Fluffy and he’s mine, I’ve been lending him to Dumbledore. However I can’t tell you what he’s guarding - that’s strictly between the professors, Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel.” Hagrid quickly whacked his hand over his mouth and Harry grinned. “I shouldn’t ‘ave said that, I should not ‘ave said that.”

“Thanks Hagrid!” Harry yelled, already halfway out the door.

He made his way back up towards the castle, eager to tell his friends what he had learnt, hoping that one of them would know who Nicolas Flamel was. It wasn’t hard to find Draco as he was waiting for him by the nearest entrance to the school from Hagrid’s hut.

“You didn’t go with the others?”

“Nah, I wanted to see if you had found anything out.” Harry knew that that probably wasn’t his actual intent for waiting for his friend due to the amount of people that made snide remarks whenever they passed him in the corridors.

The two started walking back to the dorms, and Harry started telling Draco about what had happened. Harry was glad for Draco’s presence when they rounded a corner and passed by a group of sixth year Gryffindors.

“Oh look, it’s the next dark lord and his sidekick.” One of them sneered.

“Careful, they’ll probably curse you.” Another one spoke up, causing them to all laugh.

“Draco’s not my sidekick, he’s my best friend, and maybe we will curse you - you don’t know.” He was careful as to not deny their original accusation. 

Of course, neither him nor Draco actually knew any curses, but once they did Harry knew who his first targets were going to be. Beside him, Draco smirked and got out his wand, sending a spell towards the leader - it caused him to wobble and then topple over. Draco grabbed his hand and the two of them ran down the corridor towards the dungeons. By the time they were safely away from the Gryffindors they burst out laughing.

“What spell was that anyway?”

“It was the jelly legs jinx, I found it in a book the other day and tested it out on Pansy’s kneazle. Thought it might be useful for stopping the older students from bothering us.”

“Can you teach it to me?” Draco agreed and the two took a minute to recuperate before actually heading into the common room.

Pansy and Blaise were sitting at one of the tables, playing a game of wizard’s chess, from the looks of it Pansy was winning. The two of them wandered over just as Pansy’s queen knocked Blaise’s king over.

“Checkmate!” Pansy whooped as she jumped up from the table, pumping her hands into the air, causing Blaise to slam his head onto the table.

“Well done Pansy.” Draco said as the two of them took a seat.

“Why thank you Draco.” 

“Did you find out what it is Harry?” Blaise was clearly trying to direct the attention away from his loss.

“No, but Hagrid did say that whatever is in there has something to do with a man named Nicolas Flamel. Anyone know who that is?”

“The name sounds familiar, but I can’t quite remember anything.”

“We’ll have to look around in the library to see if we can find anything on him.” Draco suggested, “For now, I would love to have a chess match against Pansy.”

\----------

On Sunday Harry wandered down to the quidditch pitch to get to training. It was only his third practice of the year but Harry wasn’t looking forward to it. He loved flying, he really did - it made him feel so free and detached from the world. What he didn’t like was the team’s captain’s teaching methods. Flint was strict about everything, especially timekeeping, so Harry had headed down fifteen minutes early to make sure he wouldn’t be yelled at again. It was just his luck that he was delayed by a certain group of first year Gryffindors.

“First years aren’t allowed to own their own broomsticks.” Weasley was the one to speak.

“Lovely, however, I’m on the Slytherin quidditch team - so the teachers have made an exception.” Harry rolled his eyes at the three of them and tried to continue towards the pitch.

“Boy, Slytherin must be really desperate if  _ you’re  _ on the team.” Surprisingly, it was Longbottom who spoke.

“They’re not desperate, they just realised that I’m the best candidate for the position.” Weasley scoffed.

“I stand by what Neville said - they _ are _ desperate.” Harry thought he had finished and yet again tried to get going, “What I can’t get my head around is the fact that the supposed saviour of the wizarding world is in  _ Slytherin _ , and that he’s friends with a Malfoy of all people.”

“Look, if you want to big up your ego by insulting me when I’m alone, then that’s fine. However, if we could reschedule for a more convenient time that would be nice - considering the fact that I’m going to be late to practice if we don’t.” Harry glared at the three of them, then turned and walked away.

Once he had been out of the Gryffindor’s line of sight he had run to the changing rooms, then rushed to get changed. Still, Harry found himself a minute late and Flint used this as reason to start yelling.

“Why in Merlin’s name are you late Potter? I thought I told you to make sure you were on time?” 

“I’m sorry I was late, I was going to be on time but then I was accosted by a group of Gryffindors.” He was slightly mocking the posh accents of many pure-bloods, but he didn’t make it noticeable.

“Whatever, just get on the bloody pitch so we can start.” Harry nodded and mounted his broom.

The practice went better than the previous ones, it seemed as though the team was warming up to him slightly. Terence Higgs, the Slytherin prefect, had been lined up for the position of seeker - he instead got the open chaser position, but kept giving Harry flares of hatred. Harry found that most of the time he just had to make sure he didn’t interfere with whatever tactics and positions the rest of the team were trying out.

Proper quidditch matches weren’t set to start until November, after the October half-term, so Harry knew he had plenty of time to perfect his skills so that he wouldn’t embarrass himself or his team for the first match. He had Halloween to look forward to before then, so Harry knew his thoughts wouldn’t be totally taken over with thoughts of quidditch.


	5. Pranks and Trolls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Slytherins have been occupying themselves by pranking their fellow students, but more mysteries start to unravel themselves at the Halloween feast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took longer than I expected because I've been preparing to go into sixth form (year 12, equivalent of Hogwarts' 6th year) and there's been a lot of work to do beforehand. The good thing is that I'll probably be able to find time to write on the train to and from college, so I shouldn't be too much slower when posting. Also thank you for all the kudos and comments, they always make me smile :D.

Draco was rather surprised at how quickly the weeks were passing by, as they were suddenly one week away from Halloween. Lessons had been going well, his favourites definitely being potions and astronomy - Blaise’s was herbology, Pansy’s was transfiguration and Harry’s was defence, even if it was a tad boring due to Professor Quirell’s teaching methods. The four of them had quickly adapted to a schedule for when they weren’t in class. Most evenings they would just go back to the common room to play games or talk about the day - though if they had homework they would stop by the library first. Saturdays were Draco’s favourite days, as they would often hang out on the grounds with Drusilla and Hedwig - Pansy had tried to bring Lilac along once, but it had ended up with all three of the animals injured, so she didn’t bring her along after that. Occasionally Daphne and Tracey would join them for study sessions or on Saturdays, but most of the time it was just Draco, Harry, Blaise and Pansy.

Another favourite pastime of theirs was pranking Gryffindors (and occasionally Hufflepuffs). Pansy’s cousin had sent her some dungbombs after she had told him about some of the rather aggravating things some Gryffindors had said to them one afternoon. In a very Slytherin fashion, they had sneaked some into the bags of Gryffindor students throughout the week. The funniest reaction to one of them finding a dung-bomb was by far Neville Longbottom, who got it out of his bag on accident during potions - and set it off (again, on accident) - causing Snape to take away twenty house points from Gryffindor. From then on they had spent a lot of time planning out certain pranks for specific students, many of which had often provoked them. Luckily, Gryffindors were not known for their cleverness, and most had yet to figure out that they were the perpetrators. 

Currently, they were sat in the library on Friday afternoon, Pansy was helping Blaise with his charms homework, though Draco and Harry had already finished. Draco sighed and looked around the bookshelves in a rather bored manner. Then he spotted something of interest, a book titled ‘ _ Jinxes and Curses: Harmless and Hilarious _ ’ and he picked it off the shelf.

“Whatcha got there Draco?” Harry queried from behind him, Draco then flashed the book in his direction so he could see - the boy visibly perked up. “Oooh, let’s look then.”

The two of them started flicking through the pages, soon accompanied by Blaise and Pansy. It didn’t take long for the four of them to have amounted a plethora of ideas for future pranks. Draco’s current favourite idea was to use the biting jinx on Neville Longbottom’s remembrall, or using the dancing feet spell on Weasley and Granger.

“Let's check this out and then go back to the dorms, we can write a list there of possible prank ideas.” Pansy suggested after they had been flicking through for ten minutes.

Draco was eager to learn as many of the jinxes as he could, though he knew some would definitely be more difficult than others to learn. He could tell that Harry was eager too - especially after Draco had taught him the jelly-legs jinx. On their way to the common room, they were stricken with luck. Longbottom was very much alone in the corridor with them, Draco smirked.

“Hey Longbottom, you lost?” Pansy taunted, they seemed to have had the same idea. The boy spun round to look at them, and then tried to hurry off.

“ Locomotor Mortis ” Harry had his wand pointed at the boy, and surprisingly, the spell worked. 

“Isn’t that from-”

“The book? Yeah, it’s kinda similar to the jelly-legs jinx, so I thought I’d test it out on Longbottom.” Besides them, Pansy and Blaise were barrelled over in laughter as Longbottom hopped away towards the Gryffindor tower.

“Harry, that was hilarious.” Pansy smiled at him and he saw Harry blush in embarrassment, somewhere deep inside him Draco felt a twinge in his stomach - though it was only brief. 

“Why thank you, though I’m not sure it’s completely harmless as the book suggests, what if he falls over?” There was a mild look of guilt or regret on the smaller boy’s face, and Draco was rather curious as to why it was there.

“Who cares, this is Longbottom we’re talking about - he falls over by himself all the time!” Blaise laughed.

They then continued back to the dorms and spent the rest of the evening planning out different pranks and trying to see which spells were easier than others. Due to the excitement of their activities, they were ten minutes late to dinner, but none of them were too fussed.

\----------

In the week leading up to Halloween teachers and students decorated the school with many decorations. The Slytherin common room was now green and black with some hints of orange in the form of pumpkins. There were several buntings hung up with little paper bats all along them, and one of the older students had charmed them to screech at random intervals - often causing any student currently in the common room to jump. Pansy’s cousin had also sent her some trick cobwebs, they looked almost exactly like normal decorative ones - however, they would stick to almost any surface and many students had found themselves covered in them. Harry, Blaise and Draco had also taken it upon themselves to decorate their dorm room, and there were now quite a few mini pumpkins and candles around the room. After classes there were a few fun activities like pumpkin carving competitions, baking contests and special one-off charms lessons from Professor Flitwick, showing the students how to animate decorations.

For Draco and his friends, this week was filled with testing out as many of the jinxes and curses from the book as they could. Unfortunately, they found that quite a few were a tad too tricky for them at the moment. However, Draco had managed to master one rather festive jinx that encased the victim’s head in a pumpkin - and he had been using it a lot. His most recent usage of the jinx was on Percy Weasley, who had been lecturing Pansy and Harry about running in the corridors at the time. The prefect had then spent the next half and hour aimlessly wandering around, trying to find someone to help him with the counter jinx. By the time he had got it off of his head, Pansy and Harry had managed to get away. All week, the four of them had heard the older students going on and on about the Halloween feast, causing them to eagerly await the Thursday dinner. 

On Thursday morning they had transfiguration followed by charms with the Gryffindors. Professor McGonagall had them trying to turn teapots into pumpkins and Professor Flitwick had shown them how to charm some decorations to hum a tune. After the rather exciting morning lessons that had set the mood, everyone made their way to lunch. There was an unmistakable buzz of excitement in the air as students ate and talked about various happenings over the week.

“We have a couple of hours until our flying lesson, should we go back to the dorms, or do something a bit more fun?” Pansy asked the group as they walked out of the Great Hall and stopped at the side of a corridor.

Harry looked around and then smiled before turning back to the group, “I say something a bit more fun - look who just came out of the Great Hall.” He nodded his head to behind him and the other three looked.

Granger had left alone, and was heading towards the library - as she passed the Slytherins she looked wary but continued with confidence. Hastily, the four of them followed after her, doing their best to look as inconspicuous as possible so that no one suspected them to be following her. Luckily, she hadn’t noticed the group of Slytherins as she slipped into an alcove to re-tie her shoelaces.

“What do you reckon, melofors?” Harry asked, already getting his wand out, prepared to cast the jinx.

“No, I have a better idea - just follow my lead.” Pansy told them, before walking towards the Gryffindor as though she wasn’t there. “Did you see Granger in Charms today, she acts like such a know it all - it’s no surprise that she hasn’t got any friends.”

“Yeah, I overheard Weasley talking to Longbottom the other day - they’re trying to think of a way to ditch her, it really says something about you when the school’s other biggest losers can’t even stand you.” Draco was quick to join in, improvisation being one of the more helpful skills he had picked up over his years of being shown around to his father’s friends like a little show pony.

“No wonder, she spends all her time with her head in a book - I don’t know anyone who’d want to be friends with her.” Blaise joined in, just as they had passed the alcove she was sat in. Draco snuck a quick glance back to see her running away in the opposite direction.

“Don’t you think that was a little mean? Shouldn’t we have just pranked her like we do with everyone else?” Harry glanced around at them, looking almost guilty.

“I don’t think it was mean, my father talks about his friends behind their backs all the time - and Granger isn’t even our friend, she’s a bloody  _ Gryffindor  _ for Merlin’s sake.” Draco was quick to reassure Harry, placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder to comfort him.

“My parents do that too.” Pansy nodded along with him, crossing her arms as she did so.

“I guess…” Harry paused to think, looking at the passers-by, “say, Dumbledore likes Gryffindors doesn’t he?”

“Yep, I think he was a Gryffindor when he attended Hogwarts himself, many,  _ many  _ centuries ago.” Pansy and Blaise laughed. “What?” Draco whined at them.

“You are so dramatic Draco.” Blaise gave him a rather amused look.

“No I’m not!”

“You are.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

The argument continued all the way back to the dungeons, with Blaise, Pansy and Harry all ganging up on Draco. He was rather offended and desperate to deny their claims, he was  _ not  _ dramatic, just a little more spirited - that what his mother always said anyways.

When they were all walking down to dinner, hours later, he was still trying to deny the claim - though Pansy was the only one still being bothered to argue with him, while Harry and Blaise were slightly ahead of them, talking about quidditch tactics. However, the moment they walked into the Great Hall, the argument was forgotten in favour of the wide spread of Halloween-themed foods out on the tables. They hurried to sit down, Draco sat in between Daphne and Harry, with Pansy and Blaise joining Tracey on the other side. Crabbe, Goyle, Theo and Millicent were all further down the table, Theo sitting with some of the older students he had made friends with. Out on the table in front of them were piles upon piles of sweets, tarts, cakes, biscuits and many other sweet treats. Draco noticed that Harry immediately went for the treacle tart, while Blaise went for the pumpkin pie, and Pansy took a toffee apple. Before anyone could properly dig in Dumbledore stood up to make a speech. 

“I know you are all eager to eat so I won’t make this long. The other teachers and I are very proud of how well you are all getting on so far, and we are hoping that as the year continues the good behaviour will as well. However, it has come to our attention that some students have taken it upon themselves to play pranks on many others, please head our warning and stop now - if we find out who you are there will be consequences for your actions. Now, back to the feast. Happy Halloween.” With that the headmaster returned to his seat and everyone started eating. 

Draco shared a look with his friends, the teachers may not know that someone was pranking the other students, but they didn’t know who - and there was no way they were going to find out. Half an hour into the feast Professor Quirrell burst through the doors to the Great Hall, causing everyone to stare at him.

“TROLL! Troll in the dungeons! Thought you ought to know.” He screamed, before passing out on the floor.

There were a few seconds of shock and confusion before every student in the hall went into a mass panic, many were screaming and running around like headless chickens before Dumbledore stood up to put a stop to it.

“SILENCE!” The old wizard waited to have everyone’s attention before continuing, “prefects will lead their students back to the dorms. Slytherins will stay here until we have gotten rid of the problem. Teachers follow me.” 

Slowly, the hall emptied out as the other three houses were led back to their dorms. The Slytherins had sat back down, and a few had resumed eating - most were worrying about the state of the dungeons and if their rooms would be alright. 

“That’s weird.” Blaise said, looking in the direction of the doors.

“What’s weird?” Harry asked him, looking in the same direction.

“Quirrell’s gone.” This caused the other three to stand up and look over to where the professor had fainted.

“Maybe he went to help the other teachers?” Harry suggested with a shrug.

“More likely that he went to hide out until they got rid of the troll.” Draco added, causing them to laugh.

A while later, Snape returned to the hall to lead them back down to the dungeons, telling them that the troll had been taken care of and there was no damage done to any Slytherin areas - though one of the girl’s bathrooms was now off limits. On their way back Harry had pointed out that Snape was limping and that he had seen a cut on his leg. While it was curious that he managed to get a wound as precise as a cut from a troll, they didn’t think on it too much.

Draco was gathering his bed clothes when he noticed he hadn’t given back the last of Harry’s clothes after taking them in. He gathered them together and passed them back to his friend.

“Here you go, I think they’re all done now, do you have anything else that needs taking in?” He gave Harry a warm smile after he saw him blushing from embarrassment.

“Uh, no. That was it. Thanks.” 

“Why didn’t you just get your aunt to take them in?” Draco tried to pry for what was probably the fifth time.

“She’s, uh, she’s busy.” Harry was looking at the floor and his hands were fidgeting, Draco hummed in thought, able to tell he was lying but not wanting to push the matter.

“Alright, well, if you ever need me to take in any more clothes just ask.” He gave him another smile before turning away to get dressed for bed.

Despite all the sugar that the boys had had in their systems, they didn’t find it hard to drift off to sleep.

\----------

By the time that the Hogwarts students were making their way to their first lessons the next morning, news of what had happened with the troll and the girl’s bathroom had spread. While a few of the Gryffindors had originally been annoyed at Granger, Longbottom and Weasley, they were now being praised for their heroics - something Draco was  _ not _ pleased with. As they were waiting outside the potions classroom he could overhear the other Gryffindors fawning over the most annoying ones, causing him to scowl.

“Oh cheer up Draco, they still lost a few house points for their house, and the teachers seem pissed at them.” Pansy rolled her eyes at him after he had crossed his arms and huffed in annoyance.

“Bloody Gryffindors, everyone praises them for being reckless idiots, then goes around berating Slytherins for being cunning and clever.”

“It is kinda cool though, that they took on a mountain troll. I saw a picture in one of the textbooks, those things are huge.” Harry seemed to be in awe as he looked over towards the Gryffindor students.

“Hey, don’t forget where your loyalties lie Harry. Besides, we probably would have been able to take it out  _ without _ destroying the girl’s bathroom  _ and  _ we wouldn’t have gotten caught.” Draco knew that he was feeling a pang of jealousy from the way Harry was talking about the Gryffindors, though he wasn’t quite sure why, putting it down at house loyalty. 

Harry turned back to his friends and smiled, “Yeah, don’t worry. I was only making a statement.” 

Then the little pang of jealousy did go away after that, but it certainly didn’t stop Draco from jinxing Weasley with the leg locker curse later in the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm low-key starting to love the Ron-Hermione-Neville friendship, just good, rule-abiding friends that care for each other and stand up for each other, very wholesome. Meanwhile, Harry is kinda angsty but definitely taking after James more with the whole pranking aspect (though Draco & Pansy can be a little cruel with it sometimes).


	6. The Quidditch Match

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry has been worrying about the upcoming quidditch match for quite a while, he knows that he has to prove himself to everyone & tries hard to do so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this is shorter than the other chapters & that it took so long to write. I started sixth form college in September and the work load alone keeps me busy most of the time, not to mention that my journey is at least an hour each way, normally an hour and a half. However, I really love this fic & I'm not abandoning it, the chapters will just take a while to come out & will probably be shorter than the first 5 until the holidays.

As November approached Harry became increasingly nervous for the upcoming quidditch matches once the season started. The recent practices had become much more tense than usual due to the urgency to be prepared and do Slytherin proud. They had a legacy to uphold as they hadn’t lost the quidditch cup for the last five years, and Flint did not want to be the captain of the team if they did lose. Harry also knew that he would probably be kicked off the team if they lost, Flint was looking for any excuse.

It didn’t help that he was getting mountains of homework from their teachers, and any spare time they had was either trying to figure out what Harry and his friends had deemed as the “Hogwarts Mystery”*, by trying to find out any information that they could about Nicolas Flamel or by pranking Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. Their latest prank had been on the fourth year Gryffindor that had refused to give them directions on the first day, he had ended up in the hospital wing with bright pink boils all over his face as they had decided to test out a combination of jinxes on him, they wrote down the results in their ‘Prank Diary’ (an old leather diary that Pansy had found stashed in the bottom of her trunk). They had also made an exact record of the library book in the diary before they had to give it back.

The morning of the match, on the 9th of November, Harry was extremely nervous, he went to breakfast with Draco early - Pansy and Blaise still sleeping - and then he made his way down to the pitch with Draco. Luckily, no one else was in the changing rooms just yet, giving Harry some time to breathe. 

“You’re going to do great, Harry. I’ve seen you on a broom, you have way more talent than those Gryffindor half-wits!” Draco smiled at him.

“Yeah, I suppose…” Harry was still unconvinced, he was the youngest seeker in a century, almost all of the other players had a lot more practice than he had had.

“Look, just try to enjoy yourself, okay?” 

“Yeah, okay.”

Draco left once the other team members started arriving, so Harry joined them in getting changed into his quidditch uniform. After what felt like hours, Flint called the team around for a few words before the match.

“Alright, first match of the season, we’re going up against the Gryffindors. This should be easy, they’ve lost every quidditch tournament for the past five years. However, they have a new seeker, and so do we.” Flint paused to glare at Harry, who gulped in response, “So, Montague, Pucey and I will try to score as much as possible, and that’s what we’re focusing on. That way, even if the Gryffindor seeker manages to catch the snitch before Potter, we’ll still win. Bletchley, do not let them score goals - do whatever you have to to stop them.” 

Then, they lined up, brooms in hand and ready to walk out onto the pitch. Harry could hear the yells and cheers from the stadium outside as students and teachers alike all cheered for their team. Madame Hooch was refereeing, she stood in the middle of the pitch, waiting for the teams with her broom in hand.

“Now I want a nice fair game from all of you,” Harry could tell she was talking more to the Slytherin team and felt a flair of anger ignite in his chest, replacing the nerves he had been feeling all morning.

He scanned the crowd and smiled when he spotted his friends, they were holding up a banner that said ‘ _ Go Potter _ ’, and Harry wondered how they had managed to hide it from him.

“Mount your brooms, please.” 

Madame Hooch blew the whistle and fourteen wizards and witches flew into the air above the crowd. Harry quickly went into doing laps around the pitch, his eyes scanning for the snitch. After his fifth lap he settled out of the way of the other players to watch the map and so he had a good place to look for the snitch. Gryffindor’s seeker - Leona Inkwell, a fourth year - had done the same.

“Higgs is in possession of the quaffle, he passes it to Pucey - one of the Weasleys hits a bludger his way, he dodges. The other twin sends another bludger his way, he dodges as well and-” Harry stopped listening to Lee Jordan’s commentary as soon as he spotted the golden shimmer of the snitch.

Immediately, Harry shot forward towards the snitch, Leona Inkwell had also seen it and dashed forwards as well. The two of them crashed into each other as they reached for the snitch, Harry having to grip onto his broomstick tightly to make sure he didn’t fall off. Both him and Inkwell had lost sight of the snitch now as it had used the collision as an opportunity to go hide again. 

“It seems like both seekers saw the snitch, but they crashed into one another in their attempts to catch it.” Lee Jordan reported from his seat up in the stands. 

After recovering from almost being knocked off, Harry guided his broom back up to his vantage point to look around for the snitch again. 

Despite being well out of the way of the other players, Harry had to quickly dodge a bludger that had been aimed right at him, which he narrowly avoided by turning ninety degrees to the right as it zoomed past. At first Harry thought that he was just unsteady from the close call with a bludger almost knocking his head off, however he soon noticed that he was completely out of control of his broom. He quickly tightened his grip on the broom, afraid of falling off as the broom was trying to buck him off by zig-zagging in every direction.

“And Flint is in possession of the quaffle, one of the twins sends a bludger his way and he’s hit in the face - nice one Weasleys!”

“Mr Jordan!” Professor McGonagall scolded him.

“Sorry Professor. Anyway Flint was able to score making it 20-10 to Gryffindor.”

Meanwhile Harry was still desperately trying to regain control of his broom, though it didn’t seem like anyone was noticing. After a few more minutes of struggling people had finally started to take notice, and Sierra Serpen, one of the Slytherin beaters, flew over to where he was currently struggling. In the background he could hear Lee Jordan commentating on the situation but he was too focused to listen.

“Potter, what are you doing?” Her tone sounded rather accusatory, as though he was doing this on purpose.

“Trying to not fall off!” He retorted with a sneer.

“Well why’s your broom like that?” She still sounded as though she was annoyed at him, causing him to be more annoyed in turn.

“I don’t know! Just help me, I don’t want to fall!” As he said that his broom jerked to the side.

Then Sierra tried to get him off his broom and onto hers, though it didn’t work. There were now a few gryffindors near by as well, seeming as though they might try to catch him if he fell, but not trying to help him off the broom. 

After hearing a commotion in the teacher’s stand Harry found himself suddenly able to control his broom. He also spotted the snitch glimmering below him, very close to the ground. Using the commotion as a distraction Harry zoomed forward and downwards towards it.

“It seems like Potters about to throw up, but - hold on. Potter has the snitch! 150 points to Slytherin and the match is over!”

Harry held up the snitch towards the Slytherin stand where he was met with cheers, though it wasn’t completely drowning out the jeers from the other stands. In the end Slytherin won 210 to 20 as Flint had used Harry almost falling off his broom as a distraction to score five more goals while everyone else was distracted. Once everyone landed on the ground an argument broke out between the two teams.

“You’re cheaters, Potter didn’t catch the snitch, he almost swallowed it! And Flint cheated when scoring the goals!” One of the Weasley twins yelled at them.

“We won fair and square, the match was never stopped while I was scoring - it’s not my fault you were distracted. Also, no where in the quidditch rule book does it say that the snitch has to be caught in the seeker’s hands - it just says that it has to be caught.”

Then there was more yelling and arguing until Madame Hooch reaffirmed what Flint had said with a slightly sad tone in her voice.

The next few minutes were a bit of a blur due to the speed at which things happened. As soon as it was properly announced that Slytherin had won, Terence Higgs and Elliot Sterling lifted Harry up onto their shoulders and carried him to the changing rooms with the rest of the team and their house cheering behind them. Once in the changing room he got lots of ‘well dones’ and pats on the head from the rest of the team - including Flint, who gave him a warning to actually catch it with his hands next time, but did give him what Harry thought would have been his attempt at a smile. 

As soon as he stepped out of the changing rooms he was barrelled into a hug by Draco. “You were amazing out there!” 

“Let him breathe Draco.” Pansy scolded with a slight laugh, causing Draco to let go and step back.

“Right, sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Harry reassured with a smile.

The group of them walked back towards the castle for the celebratory party that a few of the older years were holding. 

“Oh, just wait until you hear what Pansy figured out.” Draco told him with a gleam in his eyes.

“Right, so, you know how your broom was completely out of control? Well, I was using the binoculars and I could see Professor Quirrel holding eye contact and muttering something - so I thought he was the one who put the jinx on your broom. So then I started heading towards the stand to try and break the jinx, and on the way there I bumped into Granger - she had also figured out that there was a jinx on your broom but she thought that it was Professor Snape. Which was obviously stupid, he was probably muttering the counter curse, because there’s no way he would try to sabotage his own team!” She paused when they passed by a group of hufflepuffs, “So when we got there I was trying to think of how to distract Quirrel - and Granger set fire to Snape’s robes!”

Harry raised his eyebrow as he looked at Pansy, trying to figure out if she was lying or not - given the look on the other’s faces, she wasn’t.

“But Grangers a sucker for rules, why would she set fire to Snape?” Harry asked the group generally.

“She’s a Gryffindor, their middle name is impulsive.” Draco smirked at him.

On the way back they kept on talking about the highlights of the game and they spent the rest of the evening celebrating with the rest of the house. 


	7. The Best Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry experiences his first Christmas at Hogwarts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took me literally forever and I'm sorry but I had exams and then I was very tired once they were over. Hopefully I'll get chapter 8 out before the end of the month but I have no clue :)

In the first week of December there was an announcement made that the students who wished to stay at Hogwarts over the break were to sign up with their head of houses. Harry signed up immediately. Unfortunately for him, it seemed that Draco, Blaise and Pansy were all planning to go home for Christmas, meaning he would be alone. However, Harry didn’t mind, as long as he didn’t have to go back to the Dursley’s he was fine. As December progressed the halls of the castle became more and more Christmasy. There were garlands and wreaths hung up everywhere.

Since his friends felt bad about leaving Harry alone for Christmas there had been a surplus in their pranks - now Christmas themed, of course. They had started to perfect the art of hiding and blending into their surroundings so they hadn’t been caught yet. They had also realised that most of the teachers thought that the Weasley twins were behind most of the pranks and they were getting quite a few of the detentions, which Draco loved. They hadn’t come up with that many new combinations of jinxes and hexes, so the book wasn’t as filled up as they had hoped.

Soon Harry found himself waving his friends goodbye on the 23rd of December and walking back to a near empty common room, luckily for Harry, Tracey Davis had stayed behind as well as her family were away in Greece for Christmas. The two of them played exploding snap with the handful of other Slytherins that had also stayed behind and then settled into bed for the night.

Walking around Hogwarts when the majority of students had gone home was a very strange experience, though it was rather calming as well. When he had walked into the Great Hall on the 24th Harry was surprised at just how empty it was. There were three Hufflepuffs, eleven Ravenclaws and nine Gryffindors - four of which were Weasleys. Most of them sat on the same table, though the Slytherins still opted to sit at their own house table. There was also a lack of teachers, though the majority of them were still at Hogwarts a few had clearly gone home for the holidays.

Harry had already explored most of the castle with his friends over the first term, so instead he found himself sat in the library on the 24th - desperately trying to find something on Nicolas Flamel. He and Draco were still determined to figure out what the three-headed dog was guarding, though Pansy and Blaise weren’t as enthusiastic, they did still try to help out. Before they left for Christmas, each of them had promised to look in their libraries for any signs of him - which had caused Harry to bawk at them, and then he had to explain that most people don’t have libraries in their homes. By lunchtime Harry hadn’t found himself any closer to the answer, hoping that his friends were having more luck.

After lunch he occupied his time by letting Hedwig fly around the grounds, joined by Tracey and her owl. Before he knew it he was back in the Slytherin common room talking with Tracey by the fire before heading to bed. 

To say Harry was surprised when he woke up the next morning was an understatement. Harry was overjoyed. At the end of his bed was a pile of presents, something he had not been expecting in the slightest. He had expected presents from Draco, Pansy and Blaise, but he could see that others had gotten him presents too. Harry quickly dived into the pile, reading the labels on all of the packages to see who they were from. 

There was a box-shaped one wrapped in clean white paper from Pansy; one that looked book-shaped, wrapped in shimmering silver paper from Blaise; then two from Draco, both wrapped in dark green paper and tied up with a paler green ribbon, the smaller of the two was a square-shaped box and the larger was clearly some sweet packs. Then there was a softer, not so well wrapped package with purple and gold paper - Harry reached out to read what was on the label. ‘ _ Harry, your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well.’  _ Immediately Harry went to open it, eager to see what he had been left. He pulled out a soft cloak, the colours on it almost seemed to dance around in the light, Harry got up and tried it on in front of the mirror. He then had a minor freak out when he realised his body was gone, and he was simply a floating head. The next few minutes were filled with Harry testing out the cloak, concluding that it was somehow able to make him invisible.

After that he went back to sit on his bed, buzzing with excitement of all the possibilities of prank pulling he and his friends could do with the cloak, as well as the excitement of all the presents still sat on the end of his bed. He opened Blaise’s first, as he had suspected, it was a book, the cover read ‘ _ The Official Guide to the Quidditch World Cup _ ’. Next he opened Pansy’s present, it was a very nice writing set, with two quills; two pots of ink and a pile of parchment - he was sure that it had cost more than should have been spent on him, though he wasn’t going to complain. Finally, we’re Draco’s presents, the first - as he had suspected - was two packets of sweets, one pack of fizzing whizzbees and a pack of Bertie Bott’s every flavour beans. Then there was the smaller present, once he ripped off the wrapping paper off there was a small wooden box, carefully Harry opened the box to find a pocketwatch. The watch was beautiful, it was silver and the lid was intricately carved with two snake going around the outer rings, and in the middle there was an hourglass. 

Harry couldn’t remember a Christmas where he had been happier, Christmas at the Dursley’s was horrible - he was made to cook most of their Christmas dinner and had to listen to his aunt and uncle’s relatives droning on and on, he had to watch year after year as Dudley got piles upon piles of presents (which often ended with him in tears anyway), while Harry often got no more than an old pair of socks. Briefly, Harry felt a pulse of anger surge through him, but then he glanced back at his father’s cloak and the anger was replaced with delight as an idea struck his mind.

Christmas Day was filled with celebration, apart from meal times, most of Harry’s day was spent in the Slytherin common room playing games and eating as many sweets as they could manage. Later that night Harry’s plan went into action as he put on his invisibility cloak and slipped out of his dorm and out of the common room. As quietly as he could Harry snuck his way along to the library, luckily he had a lot of experience from the rare nights where his aunt and uncle had forgotten to lock the door on his old bedroom in the cupboard, when he would sneak outside to watch the stars. The skills he had picked up of how to make his footsteps near silent and how to stick to the shadows to stop from being caught if one of the Dursley’s did ever come downstairs, had definitely come in handy when pulling pranks with his friends. 

Once in the library he headed straight for the restricted section, using his lamp to guide the way. Setting the lamp down on a table, Harry reached his hand out from under the cloak, tracing the spines of the books. Harry made sure to stay under the cloak, in case anyone were to come along, so he could make a quick escape. He grabbed a book down from the shelf and opened it on a random page, immediately he was met with a horrible screaming sound and he quickly slammed the book shut and shoved it back on the shelf. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quick enough as he heard the all too familiar grumblings of Filch. In his hurry to get out before he was caught by Mrs Norris, Harry accidentally knocked over his lantern. He hurriedly daunted around Filch and out of the library, down the hallways. 

Finally, once he thought he had gotten away for good, Harry stopped to catch his breath. Then, he almost jumped right out of his skin when he heard the droning voice of his head of house - Professor Snape - conversing with Filch. Panic immediately ran through his veins and Harry reacted quickly, slipping into a room to his left and waiting for the sounds of their voices and footsteps to pass. Once he was sure they had gone Harry stepped back further into the room and took a look around. The room had clearly been abandoned a long time ago, if the amount of dust it had collected was anything to go by. However, there was one object that stood out from the rest, an old mirror with very intricate carvings. On the top it read ‘ _ Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi _ ’, which Harry assumes was an older language like Latin or Ancient Greek. Carefully, he stepped forward to get a better look, though he almost cried out in shock when - once he was stood facing the mirror straight on - there was suddenly a crowd of people stood behind him. Slowly, Harry turned around, though there was no one there. So he went back to looking in the mirror, to see why there was a crowd of people stood behind him when he was looking in it.

Upon examination Harry started to realise that some of the people looked almost familiar, the two people standing directly behind him looking the most similar. The woman smiled at him fondly and Harry noticed that she had the same eyes as him. Then he looked to the man, who - Harry had to admit - was almost exactly the same as him, though the man’s skin was a little darker and he didn’t share the eyes, he was sure that this man was his father. 

“Dad,” Harry whispered in awe, his hand reaching out towards the figures in the mirror, “mum...you’re my parents.” 

For the next few minutes Harry just sat there in front of the mirror, staring at his relatives, inspecting every little detail. Eventually, he realised he had to leave so he could actually get some sleep that night. 

By the time Harry was finally back in his bed, he had decided that once the Christmas break was over he would show his friends the mirror so they could meet his parents and relatives. He went to sleep with a smile on his face, this was the best Christmas he’d ever had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to say thanks for all of the kudos and lovely comments y'all leave. They always make me smile :D
> 
> Update (10/2/21) - this is not abandoned, just on hiatus - I will return eventually but my mental health has gone downhill since lockdown v2 in England so I don't have the motivation that this fic requires at the moment, but I do want to pick this back up again. Hope you're all well!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, if you liked it feel free to leave a kudos or a comment (it helps the chapters get posted faster).


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